Seeking information on inherited WWII bringback wakizashi .

[HankB]

This is the third sword my father brought back from PTO in WWII - the only story associated with this blade is that I think I remember my father saying something about short swords not being as common as long swords.

 

Per comments on my previous posts, I've included some measurements on this sword:

 

Nagasa: 42.8 cm

Kissaki: 3 cm

Sori: 1 cm

Sakihaba: 1.8 cm

Motohaba: 2.5 cm

Nakago: 14.1 cm

Yasurimi: faint, but mostly sujikai, with some kiri near the munemachi

Nakago sori: ~ 1 mm

 

I have no idea whatsoever as to this blade's pedigree, and would appreciate help in that regard.

 

I've uploaded some images . . . I've got higher-resolution versions available if necessary, but I'm trying not to hog bandwidth too much.

[HankB]

I also took some pix of the fittings . . . thank you for looking.

[HankB]

And last but not least, a closeup top view of the munemachi . . . not much depth of field here, but it should be adequate to tell someone who knows nihonto something. (I pointedly exclude myself from that category.)

[Gabriel L]

Hi again Hank,

 

Everyone and his dog is at the SF Token Kai right now... except me of course. Another year in which the timing just didn't work.

 

Anyway... perhaps your father meant that short swords were rarely seen on the WWII battlefield (which is true), wakizashi are common otherwise. They were used by all classes in addition to the samurai, and were the standard shoto of the daisho adopted in the Edo period which further boosted their ubiquity.

 

This is another old blade in old mounts (congrats, 3 for 3) although the mounts are not as fine quality and the blade is in lamentable though probably very restorable condition. You might want to get a window polish on this one to see what's beneath the surface. It looks like it was sanded or polished by an amateur at some point, and that might make the geometry very difficult to re-define, but a polisher would have to see it in person to know.

 

Gotta go again,

-GLL

[HankB]

Hi, Gabriel.

 

You called it, I'm sure my father meant wakizashis were rare on the WWII battlefields - his context was that of a WWII GI.

 

From what I've read, wakizashis were, for a time, the only swords that could be worn by non-samurai, so I'd expect them to be common in the more general scheme of things.

 

As I was looking at the blade I found myself thinking that whoever had this last probably did use "field expedient" polishing techniques, possibly to remove rust, possibly to put an edge on . . . probably some Japanese soldier to whom the blade was more of a simple tool than anything.

 

If these blades could only talk, we might hear some interesting tales . . .

[Jean]

Hi Hank,

 

Blade nakago seems ubu, few tapering, small sori, yasurime leads makes me think of a Shinto Kanbun Wakizashi.